MDC clarify their position on sanctions

By Never Kadungure

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband created a storm last week Tuesday when he suggested rather naively in Parliament that targeted sanctions on companies and members of Mugabe’s inner circle would only be removed on the advice of the MDC. 

Stung by the negative publicity the British Embassy in Harare issued a clarification saying the most important factor influencing the UK’s views on lifting EU restrictive measures will be evidence of actual change and reform on the ground in Zimbabwe. This they said ‘will need to take into account the views of a number of stakeholders, including the MDC, on the economic, social and other conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe.’ 

ZANU PF national chairman and Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo said, ‘Britain has let the cat out of the bag on the issue of sanctions. They have admitted that the MDC called for the sanctions and it can only remove them on the request of the MDC.’ 

SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma caught up with MDC Foreign Affairs spokesman and Public Service Minister, Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro and asked him to respond to Moyo’s claims. 

Below is the transcript; 

Eliphas Mukonoweshuro: First of all it very, very disappointing that someone who holds the position of an ambassador and therefore should be able to read in a discerning manner, political statements should come up with such a statement. We all listened to Mr. Miliband’s statement and nowhere as far as we understood in a literal sense of the word, nowhere has he ever said that the MDC called for the restrictive measures that have been imposed on Zimbabwe. So that in actual fact is an error, a deliberate one on the part of ambassador Moyo. 

Lance Guma: Perhaps the problematic word used by Foreign Secretary Miliband is the word ‘guided’. He said ‘above all they are going to be guided by what the MDC says’ so a lot of people feel that was a tactical error on his part and should not have made the statement because it is creating all these problems. 

Mukonoweshuro: Well, well, well, that is very interesting. The MDC as is well known by all who care to know how the Foreign Policy process is formulated, does not formulate foreign policies on behalf of any government of any country, at all. Unless of course the British are saying their foreign policy is in the hands of the MDC. Then of course that’s a discovery we were not aware of. But as far as we know, the Europeans in general, the British in particular are the custodians of their own foreign policy processes and they determine the kind of relationships that they have with other countries in the world. 

Guma: The British Embassy in Harare has of course issued a clarification saying the most important factor influencing the UK’s views on lifting these measures will be evidence of actual change and reform on the ground in Zimbabwe. Do you share those sentiments? 

Mukonoweshuro: Well these restrictive measures were put in place by those who determined that the relationship between themselves and the government of Zimbabwe was taking a turn for what it became. So in actual fact, what the inclusive government has committed itself to do, is to ensure that those issues that have soured the relationship between this country and other countries of Europe and the United States are going to receive urgent attention in order to remove obstacles to smooth relations between this country and those countries. 

Guma: There are some who have cynically suggested, why doesn’t the MDC simply call Zanu PF’s bluff and call for the measures to be removed and see whether their call will have any effect on these other countries who have had those measures in place. Will that work as a strategy, call their bluff and say, hey remove the sanctions? 

Mukonoweshuro: But the Prime Minister has already done so in his address to Parliament. He clearly called for the easing of restrictive measures and that is a matter of public record for Zimbabweans through their parliament. So the Prime Minister has already stated the MDC position that we look forward to a removal of these restrictive measures. And what we are also saying is that we should be judged by the progress we have made so far. We have made tremendous strides in the inclusive government and that ought to be taken into account when other countries fashion their relations with us. 

Guma: And obviously my final question Professor Mukonoweshuro is the problem not the failure to fully implement the GPA and right now we have all these outstanding issues, talks to resolve them, deadlocks that are being reported. Is all this not the main problem. Sort that out and Zanu PF should not be complaining about anything because that will naturally open the door for all these measures to be removed? 

Mukonoweshuro: Firstly I would like to say that is the kind of bluff I would like to call. Let’s implement all those measures that we agreed amongst ourselves without external interference and then lets go to the international community and say here we are, we can be judged by the extent to which we keep our own promises which we made ourselves and then lets see how the international community is going to react. 

Secondly I must also remind you and the rest of the listeners that the inclusive government formed a committee called a Re-engagement Committee which is chaired by Simbarashe Mumbengegwi the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Its specific mandate is to put in place strategies to ensure that these restrictive measures are removed. 

And the composition of this committee is multi-partisan, which is composed of Zanu PF, the MDC-T and the MDC-M. So that is the thrust we should be taking. We should use that committee to ensure that we engage the international committee and come to some kind of understanding as to how best to restore the relationships that have been tarnished over the events of the past ten years.

On Tuesday the MDC released the following statement.

While we enjoy the goodwill and integrity of the majority of Zimbabweans and indeed the international community, we are not responsible and accountable for Zanu PF’s failed policies and repression of the past which led to the country’s circumstances. As a partner in the inclusive government we are committed to remedying those failed policies and bring real change to the people of Zimbabwe.  In our quest to rejoin the family of nations we expect to be assessed on the progress that is made on the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) .SW Radio Africa/Never Kadungure